Will write more about this in due course, but have piled up the miles in the last couple of days. From Norwich to Abington via Caddington and St Albans was 472 miles; a further 154 brought us to Ballater today. Since arriving we have driven up into the hills and down to Corgarff, then later by the back road to Balmoral. After all that, and with the house a little chilly because it’s rarely occupied, we decided on an early night.
Tag Archives: caddington
Football with a French accent
At last the weather has turned warmer. Walked three miles back from Joe’s at lunchtime after beating him 3-0 at chess (the first luckily on time, but the other two quite good games), and stepped into John Lewis’s to research TVs for Andrew, adding a diversion to Timberhill to buy Claxton Opera tickets. Very pleasant. The weather was quite good at the weekend too, which we spent at Caddington to celebrate prematurely David’s 38th birthday – actually today. On the Saturday we were joined by Philip Coomes and family, and had a really good time, rather too much of it spent playing football in the garden, which meant I was exhausted in the evening and went to sleep through Dr Who.
Oliver is developing into a really good little footballer, and Lydia and Alistair aren’t bad either. Meanwhile Amy has developed a French accent, though only while talking to her dolls. The various French numbers feature strongly, but although I didn’t recognise any other words, they sounded as if they ought to be proper French words, even if they weren’t. Taught Oliver a bit of guitar after I managed to get it roughly in tune and Dot finished it off. Oliver is also learning cello, and Vicky came round in the evening to give him a lesson. Amy has a keyboard in her bedroom, so it’s just a question of time… On the Sunday we had lunch at the Harvester nearby: just right for a family, though Oliver was feeling rather poorly, with a cold suddenly developing. Had a decent steak.
On the way home we decided on the spur of the moment to call in to see Joan at Baldock. Against the odds, she was in and had a couple of friends with her. They insisted we stay, so we had a pleasant hour or so there. The female friend had been to Wall Hall College, so she and Dot had something in common, though they weren’t there at the same time. Joan has just had another granddaughter (Harriet’s) and is going up to Leeds to see her today.
Yesterday Dot had to go to Acle school in the morning, but she got back in time to come with me to the lunchtime Norfolk and Norwich Festival concert we’d booked for at the Assembly House. Good value at £7. Superb cellist Jessica Hayes paired with Polish accordionist Rafal Luc. An unlikely team, but I thought it worked well, though Dot was not as convinced. Both agreed that the accordion solo of Mendelssohn’s Organ Sonata No 6 was brilliant, sounding just like an organ: tremendous force and amazing dexterity and feeling. Called in at John Lewis afterwards for tea and looking for an iPod dock, but couldn’t find what we wanted: similarly failed later at the Apple Store.
We’ve been fortunate with our Festival choices: on Friday we went to St Andrew’s Hall for the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra, which was absolutely brilliant, especially during the opening Borodin. The final Shostakovich I found less memorable, though it was technically well-nigh perfect. Violinist Chloe Hanslip was great (except in actual stature) for her performance of Philip Glass’s Violin Concerto No 1, which I thought was brilliant. At the end the orchestra did a couple or encores featuring their livewire redhead drummer Alla Mamyko. The percussionists were fascinating throughout.
16 September 2008
Oliver and Amy on the slopes of Dunstable Downs, where we all went kite-flying last Saturday afternoon. It was a warm day with intermittent wind, and we managed to get both kites up high at one point. There was a lot of glider activity from the field below the downs, so plenty of entertainment all round. In the evening we looked after the children while David and Vicky celebrated their tenth wedding anniversary with Philip and Jane (20th) at Bishop’s Stortford. Oliver had plenty of presents and was consumed by his Nintendo DS, for which we got him an extra game.
On the Sunday afternoon we went to Stockwood Park, two miles away, which is now even better since the creation of a Discovery section: lots of play areas and gardens. We all had an ice cream, and I watched a mother patiently teaching her son how to play chess on the open air board while Vicky took a conference call from work and the others explored their surroundings. Afterwards we all had a look round the motor museum, which is also very interesting. And no charge for any of this (except the ice cream). Even the weather was excellent again. We stayed at Caddington till the children had gone to bed, then had a cup of tea and left just after nine, getting home just after 11pm. Dot drove both ways.
Annette came round yesterday to deliver leaflets and invitations for the Paston Private View. She stayed for tea, and we discussed the arrangements for exhibiting in the church, which seemed at best obscure. We sent a joint e-mail to Lucy, who replied later with quite detailed plans, so that seems to be all right. I’ve finished off my poems leaflet and have sent some notes on the origins of the poems to Lucy: I’m not sure what she’s going to do with them.
In the evening I played chess against Colin Payne and lost convincingly, never getting a halfway decent position. He is someone I have normally beaten in the past, so I could be going down the tubes. But we’ll see.
I now have 14 friends on Facebook, including, astonishingly, Monica Estruch from Spain, who we haven’t been in contact with for many, many years. We stayed in her family’s house on Menorca in the 90s, after her brother had stayed with us in York.
Barbara is here at the moment, working on Philosophy 4 Children with Dot. They now have a domain name registered, thanks to David, and I think are well on the way to a website. From what I can hear in the distance, I think they have been consulting with David today. Dot has produced a nice draft for an introductory leaflet.
30 May 2008
Back late last night from three days in Caddington, looking after the grandchildren during half term. Journey back was in heavy rain, and so was the journey down on Monday night. In between we had a little dry weather, but plenty of rain too. Vicky is working very hard on a project which is up against a difficult deadline; David took the opportunity to go up to Lancaster on one of his regular visits – a little bit worrying, as he has still got a kidney stone lodged above his bladder, but it shows no sign of moving.
On the Tuesday we stayed in the house, but on the Wednesday we braved the dodgy weather in the afternoon to go to Ashridge Forest, where we had a drink and a snack before popping into the visitors’ centre and shop. Oliver bought a frog, of which he quickly became fond. Amy got a ball and something else, which I’ve forgotten. I bought them a secondhand book each and one for Dot (three for £1). The forest was soggy and muddy. We drove over Ivinghoe Beacon on the way back, which is a pleasant road.
We spent all of yesterday at Whipsnade Zoo, leaving home not much after 10am in fine and dry weather that persisted for several hours before collapsing into solid rain midway through the afternoon, roughly at the point when Oliver and Amy were queueing to go on the train (see picture). We also went on the bus, and Oliver had an earlier ride on the train with me while Amy was on the bouncy castle. We paid two visits to the flying birds display (the first quite exceptional, the second pretty good) and took in the sea lions and the elephants, though we were a bit late for the latter, and Oliver was too shy to push himself forward for a good view. Still, he did see them. The gift shop was total chaos as it was pouring with rain and everyone funnelled in there, but we managed to emerge intact, and with something for each of the children. All in all, a pretty good day, with some nice food from the Marquee Cafe for lunch. Amy attempted a death plunge from her buggy, but this was only partially successful. Plunge spectacular, but not even minor injuries.
Whipsnade has a lot to offer with huge amounts of space and some lovely animals, but it is expensive, unless you live nearby and can get a season ticket.
Today has been mainly catching up, though Dot and I went to Park Farm for the usual routine, which was quite pleasant. I tried to find out the date of my operation, but it hasn’t been fixed yet. The nurse thought it wouldn’t be arranged until after Monday’s cystoscopy, but I should know on Tuesday. She felt sure it would be in June, though. Weather today a bit better, and the brown bin got emptied, though they hid it three doors down after emptying, presumably because they’re a bit miffed at having to empty it.
21 May 2008
We eventually reached Caddington at 8pm after a very easy journey (Dot driving). The children had just gone to bed, so we had to creep in radioactively and keep quiet till they settled. The next day was David’s 36th birthday, which we celebrated with present-opening at breakfast and a barbecue at lunchtime, plus fun for the rest of the day largely featuring David’s new Wii fitness board – his present from us. Very impressed by it, especially as I did an excellent ski jump. (Don’t ask.) I was no good at anything else, though.
The picture above is Amy playing in the garden with Nana (out of picture). In the afternoon Oliver was at a party in St Albans. Weather was quite good, though not good enough to eat the barbecue outside.
Home in the evening, with Dot driving most of the way again: another fairly easy journey. On Monday she was at Thurton school doing a church school inspection: I caught up with this and that and then drove to Wroxham Barns with some pictures to be framed and stopped off at Wroxham Broad. I’d forgotten how unexciting it was: the public are restricted to a small pay-and-display car park from which you can see only part of the Broad and none of the marina. The sun was quite warm, and I hung around for about 20 minutes, then came home. Earlier I had a healing session with a friend of a friend, which was quite relaxing, but this was rather spoilt by the evening’s chess game, which I played very well and then lost again in time trouble. Left me rather down, and I didn’t sleep well. I have another game tonight and tomorrow night – both at home. What I need is a noisy crowd cheering me on.
Yesterday we took our friend Stephanie out to lunch at Cafe Rouge, which was tasty and good fun. And in the evening our usual friends came round for the usual Tuesday meal – sans David and Bridget, who are on holiday in Sussex and who rang me just beforehand. All very concerned about my wellbeing. The weather is teetering towards summer without any real sign of it wanting to commit itself.
8 April 2008
A motley crew on a snowy April Sunday. For the record, left to right: Brian and Jacqui Quentin, Dot, Sue and Bob Bushell , Ruthie (Ann) and Ken Caves and yours truly, all gathered at Leatherhead Golf Club for the ruby anniversary of Bob and Sue, who was at teacher training college with Dot, as were Jacqui and Ruthie. As I often visited the college, Wall Hall, and the house where they lived – Otterspool – I’ve also known Ken and Bob for some time (very intermittently), but Brian is Jacqui’s second husband, and it was the first time I’d met him. Also there were Liz and Pete Stabler, who were also a couple back in Wall Hall days. They had just left when this picture was taken.
Quite an epic journey to reach Leatherhead. We came down the previous day (Saturday), and got stuck in a huge, extremely slow-moving queue on the A11. It took us an hour to go about four miles, because the road had been closed south of the Stansted turn, and everyone was merging into a single lane up to the traffic lights. We took the road less travelled – a B-road going south-east, and Dot navigated us across some of the lesser known parts of Essex, like Chipping Ongar and South Weald, with the occasional piece of intuition from myself, until we hit the M25 at the A12 junction. From there, surprisingly, it was plain sailing, and we reached Junction 9 without incident, Dot sirecting us by an interesting route to the Woodlands Hotel. The entire journey took four and a half hours – long enough normally for us to get to Hastings and halfway back.
Very smart hotel in country house style, with a friendly and efficient staff with no discernible English ancestry. Had a meal in the Brasserie in the evening. Expensive and good-average food. On the down side, the five terrestrial TV channels were unavailable (“aerial affected by storm”), so we were stuck with Sky News, which didn’t make me want to get Sky at all. Talk about repetitious. Talk about repetitious. Talk about repetitious. And in the morning the hot water was lukewarm (“maintenance are looking at it”) till after breakfast. You had the feeling that on a good day it might have been exceptional, but it wasn’t a good day.
Nevertheless, it was comfortable, and looked great after the forecast heavy snowfall that greeted us the following morning. Got some rather good pictures of the surrounding gardens. Still plenty of snow around when we left at about 11.45 (after coffee in the lounge – £6.50) to travel the short distance to the Leatherhead Golf Club, which we soon found after a brief excursion up the wrong road. Very pleasant afternoon there with a good carvery meal and wine which left me on the brink, and by the time we left at about 5pm, the snow had amazingly almost vanished. The M25 turned out to be straightforward, and we reached Caddington at 6.15pm.
It’s been very cold for several days now, and it was still very chilly when we left Caddington with Oliver yesterday just after lunch, arriving home after a straightforward journey at about 3.15pm. A former student, Sally Campbell, called in just after 4pm to pick up a reference I’d written for her, and in the evening I won a game of chess against a guy from Dereham – Oliver had been rooting for me, after he played me in the afternoon and “beat” me. He’s very keen on it at the moment. He’s also brilliant on the computer, picking up anything I show him very quickly. He produced a page of comic art in quick time this morning, though I wasn’t in the room at the time.
27 February 2008
Three in a row and a bonus point. My two grandchildren, Oliver and Amy, with their friend Alastair, all entranced by a Wii computer game. We spent a weekend in Caddington, and Alastair came round on the Sunday, bringing with him his sister Lydia, and his parents Phil and Jane. Quite a while since we’d seen them: I used to work with Phil’s father David on The Christian newspaper in London in the mid-60s.
And another similar relationship: last night Dot and I went to the Maddermarket again to see a play which included Sam, the son of Nigel, my best friend at university, also in the mid-60s. Sam is clearly an actor of some promise, and the play – The Musicians – was very well done. Sam and his mum Heather came back for coffee afterwards.
On Monday the vicar came round for tea, and we had a chat about life, the universe and anything. The church – or to give it its alias, the Norwich Christian Meditation Centre – will soon be having a website, and I shall probably be having some oversight of it, which could be interesting. In the evening I scored what must be one of the luckiest wins of my chess career, having been dead lost for most of the game. My opponent panicked in time trouble and let me mate him. The team captain, who had stepped out briefly, couldn’t believe I had won, and I was of much the same view. It was rather like a football match in which one team is stuck in its own penalty area for 89 minutes, then breaks upfield, the ball hits someone and ends in the opposing team’s net. Well, maybe not quite that bad. I did make a couple of quite nice moves, but it should have been all over by then.
Speaking of football, Spurs managed to win a cup at last – the Carling Cup, beating Chelsea 2-1 on Sunday. David, Phil and I were sneakily listening on radio for much of the match.
Yesterday I spent 2-3 hours with Annette, talking about our Paston workshop, and got some interesting ideas together. I will make a proper note of them when I’ve finished this and send them off to Lucy, via Annette. Had lunch there after Annette and I had picked up some eggs from a roadside stall. Showed Mike how to put images on the InPrint website. Dot meanwhile was checking out places we could have our ruby wedding anniversary party in August, and it seems likely to be Dunston Hall. We had a big party for relatives a couple of years ago: this will be for friends (with the odd exception).
Today – bright though chilly – J is with us again, having visited her husband in hospital. They’re beginning the painful process of working out where he will live and who will pay for it. There’s a chance it will be the NHS, but you can never be totally sure. It’s now after lunch, J and Dot are in the city, and I’m waiting for the insurance company to ring back about the dispute we’re engaged in about whether I cancelled my policy last year ot not. I’ve supplied paperwork, but they seem reluctant to admit they’re wrong. It’s important because of the no claims bonus issue. Over £400 hangs on it.
There was an earthquake last night. It woke and frightened Dot, and she woke me up. A reasonably large quake for England (around 5 on the Richter scale and centred in Market Rasen, Lincolnshire), but no-one injured and no damage in our area. Very little damage elsewhere. Annoyingly I couldn’t get back to sleep properly afterwards – thinking about that insurance thing – and after lying awake for ages, I got up at 5.20 and watched TV for the next two and a half hours – stuff I’d recorded, not the rubbish you normally get on in the middle of the night. Now, of course, I’m very tired. Why can’t you fall asleep in front of the TV when you actually want to?
15 September 2007 (b)
Terrible trio at the Braemar Gathering. Front row, of course. Left to right, Dot, Ella and her husband David, complete with kilt.
Holiday was followed of course by a huge rush to sort out post and e-mails and write my page for the EDP (www.back2sq1.co.uk). Also squeezed in visit to dentist before travelling to Caddington late on Friday evening for a family party – Oliver was 5 on the 11th. The other grandparents and uncle, aunt and cousin arrived midway through the following morning, while I was taking Oliver out on his main present from his parents -a rather impressive scooter. He got the hang of it very quickly.
Later in the weekend he watched a mountain bike downhill sports event on TV and got very taken by it. He had to go out and demonstrate technique on his bike: he’s very confident.
His other grandparents bought him a train set, which necessitated a trip to the DIY shop to obtain chipboard to mount it on. I left this to the experts – Dave and David. Lovely party – Oliver and Amy were on good form. We returned late on Sunday, having got diverted on to our old route because of a roundabout being shut on the A505.
On Monday Dot and I went to John Rayner’s memorial service. Lovely man, and a packed Surrey Chapel. He was 74. Stayed afterwards and spoke to his wife and daughter, both of whom I know quite well. In the evening played first game of chess of the new season at a new venue – -the Gas Social Club! Won knockout tournament game against Colin Payne.
On Tuesday Phil and I went to Coventry to take Andrew to look at a possible new home for him – The Langleys in Stoke Green. He reacted very well, and I liked the people in charge. Now it seems he will be moving in on Monday, which is pretty fast-moving after months of doing nothing much. Got back in time for our regular Tuesday meal – six of us.
Dramatic new haircut on Wednesday. Number four razor. Quite amazingly short on top, but I think I like it. Most people have made favourable comments, but they may be afraid I’ll hit them, as I look a bit hard. Also on Wednesday a church meeting at Horsford which went very well – oh, and England beat Russia 3-0.
Went to Bally on Thursday to meet Annette and Rupert to discuss InPrint matters (www.inprintartsandpoetry.co.uk) following the relaunch of the poetry vending machine. It seems that something concrete may be about to happen. In the evening we went to the Archers to give them some information on Normandy, whither they are hasting in a fortnight. In return they gave us a meal, which is more than fair, especially as they had to look at our pictures.
On Friday I wrote some of my sermon for Sunday and generally caught up on my in-tray and other things. Walked into city to pay in a cheque and almost went to the cinema, but instead stayed in and watched England lose 36-0 to South Africa at rugby. Could easily have been 50-0.
And now today, here I am finishing my sermon, catching up on my blogging and scanning in some photographs. I shall shortly install some new software. Meanwhile Dot is visiting her gang down at Metfield and is having such a good time that she is staying longer than she meant to. I am about to check the football results.
4 August 2007
Yes, it really is 4 August, and this is a gratuitous picture of Honfleur. Note the absence of licorice ice cream.
Following our return from Ditchingham we had a day at home before travelling down to Caddington to look after the grandchildren for three days: the journey down on Monday evening was a record – about 1 hr 50 min, largely because of the absence of any problems, unlike the journey back.
David was away working up north, and Vicky was leaving home at 6am and returning at 5pm; so we had charge of Oliver and Amy from when they woke (earliest 7.15am, latest 8.30am) until Vicky’s return. The first two days were warm and dry. The children didn’t really want to leave the house until the afternoon in each case. The first day we went to Stockwood Park; the second Ashridge Forest, where Oliver did some mature riding on his bike up a road used by cars all the time, and we all went further into the forest than we meant to, so that O and A got a little muddy. Visitor’s centre there was surprisingly good, but the toilets were surprisingly bad – pretty disgusting, in fact. Still, fun was to be had with ponds and logs. On the Thursday it rained, and the fair didn’t open till 6pm (!), so we paid a late visit to Woodside Farm. Because of the small number of people there, the children were able to take advantage, and Oliver spent some time in the bouncy castle on his own. So much fun that we were home a good half-hour later than Mummy, who was cooking us our third lovely meal in a row. Children were lovely, and made it easy for us.
We left for home about 9.15, anticipating an easy ride, but the Newmarket bypass was closed, and we got in a long queue of traffic diverted through the town (Dot driving). As the Highways Agency couldn’t organise their way out of a paper bag, there was no provision made to allow all the extra traffic to drive throught the town easily, but we eventually crawled through and made it back home by about 11.45pm.
Yesterday Dot and I both had a blood test and caught up on paperwork. Very warm, as it is today. Decided to have a meal at Cafe Rouge, which was superb as always. Discovered that Andrew was ill, possibly the result of anxiety at being under the impression he was about to be moved. Spoke to Julia, his social worker, a couple of times. First she hoped to get him into a place in Coventry, but this turned out to be not possible. Then there’s one at Leamington, and she wanted me to take Andrew to see it. However I rang the hospital, who said Andrew was too ill to come home this weekend as planned. I rang again today to check, but he’s still bad. I hope to go on Monday – his birthday – and maybe take him out for a meal. Dot is at present in town having a meal with the gang of four from Alburgh.
31 May 2007
These are my grandchildren, Oliver and Amy, taking part – albeit unwittingly – in an InPrint art installation at the Open Studios. The installation is called Shaded, by Rupert Mallin and Tonia Jillings: more can be seen on it at www.inprintartsandpoetry.co.uk. The children were just having a rest while we all chatted at the private view on the 20th.
I’m just back from a St Augustine’s LMT meeting at Horsford. LMT members: at least 10. Number present: 3. Clearly a priorities problem, except for Dot, who is in Caddington looking after the above grandchildren. I shall be going tomorrow. Today I cleared up a few outstanding things. After months of dithering I went to see about an improved gravestone for my parents’ grave, and I followed that by going to see a former colleague who is in Aylsham Hospital – hopefully recovering from cancer. Bit odd being in the place where my mother and father-in-law died. Good visit, though. J was very upbeat and looking quite well, though in a wheelchair. Her sister was also there.
Lovely day today for a change: some sun and warmth. Yesterday popped down to Bally again in between writing Monday’s page. Lone vigil by Annette. Piece appeared on my poetry prize in today’s EDP Art, Antiques and Collectibles supplement. Not sure which category I fall under.